People v. April Renee Morrissette. 17PDJ033. April 10, 2018. The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ conditional admission of misconduct and disbarred April Renee Morrissette (attorney registration number 35247), effective April 10, 2018.
On December 11, 2015, Morrissette pleaded guilty in Arapahoe County District Court to computer crime, a class-four felony, and to theft, a class-one misdemeanor. She received a three-year deferred judgment and sentence on the felony charge and three years’ probation on the misdemeanor charge.
These convictions arose out of Morrissette’s collection of unemployment insurance benefits. She began collecting those benefits in January 2011, after her employment at a law firm was terminated. Before doing so, she accessed a website maintained by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and signed a form warning against making false statements and willful misrepresentation to obtain benefits. From March to November 2011, Morrissette worked at another law firm. She intentionally continued to collect unemployment benefits even though she knew she was no longer entitled to them. She was employed during 32 of the 54 weeks that she filed for and received unemployment insurance benefits. During this period, she earned at least $52,423.72, but she misrepresented her earnings as $0.00. Morrissette fraudulently collected a total of $15,648.00 in unemployment insurance benefits to which she was not entitled.
Through this conduct, Morrissette violated Colo. RPC 8.4(b) (a lawyer shall not commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects) and Colo. RPC 8.4(c) (barring conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation).